Oil extraction kinetics of hydrothermally pretreated canola seeds

Abstract

In this work the kinetics of oil extraction from spring canola seeds subjected to a hydrothermal pretreatment with direct steam (393 K, 5 min) was studied. The differences between the seed internal structure generated by the application of this pretreatment and that of the untreated sample (ground sample) were observed by scanning electron microscopy. Oil from both samples was extracted with hexane at different times and temperatures using a stirred batch system. Oil yield increased up to 46 % due to the hydrothermal treatment. A model was proposed to explain the oil extraction process from hydrothermally pretreated and untreated canola seeds, taking into account two main mechanisms: a washing process of the surface oil from the seed, and a diffusion process. Parameters of the model were fitted, and values of the oil fraction extracted during the washing step (0.27 and 0.50 for untreated and hydrothermally treated canola seeds, respectively) and the effective diffusion coefficient (3.1–9.4.10‐12 m2s−1) were obtained. The latter value showed an Arrhenius‐type temperature dependence in the untreated sample, but the diffusion coefficient did not vary with temperature when oil diffusion was analyzed using hydrothermally pretreated seeds.